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Missions Adept, 6 Essence

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Hobbes

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« on: <08-16-20/1238:14> »
I didn't have any character hooks for this one, so it's really just a build to show that 6 Essence Adepts are comparable to the builds posted in other threads.

This build is less combat effective, but still quite capable, but has a really good Social Secondary going on.

Metatype   B   Elf 11
Attributes   A   24 Points
Skills   C   20 Points
Magic   D   1 PP Adept
Resources   E   8000

Attributes
S   5
A   7 (11)
R   5
B   3
I   5
L   2
C   7
W   3
Essence 6
Magic 6


Qualities
Bad Debit (5)
Ambidexterity
Honor Bound (TBD)
Incompetent Firearms
Mentor Spirit
Spirit Bane Fire Spirits

Skills
Stealth   1
Close Combat (Blade)   6
Athletics (Archery)             5
Con                                   4
Influence (Negotiation)   5
Perception                     1

Knowledge Skills

Gangs
Fashion
Smuggling Practices
Seattle Smuggling Routes

Adept Powers
Wall Running
Increased Agility 4
Critical Strike (Thunder Bird)
Vocal Control
Combat Sense 2

Martial Arts
Jogo De Pao (Threatening Edge)
Precise Strike Blade
Ballestra
Rolling Clouds

Contacts
Mr. Johnson 7/7
Talismonger 7/7
Crime Boss 7/7

Gear
Light Crossbow

Fake SIN 3
Jackrabbit
Low Life 1 Month

Injection Bolt 4
Meta Commlink
Trodes
Subvocal Mic
Narcojet 5

Rating 3 Licence: Adept, Driving, Bounty Hunter

Cougar Long tooth
Detachable Blade
Smart Materials
Personalized Grip
Hidden Melee Arm Slide

Jazz (4)

Armante Dress

Mechanical thoughts:  If caught flat footed this build needs a tick or two to get set up.  Hit of Jazz, get the Long Tooth out and Extended, Spin up Threatening Edge, Activate Smart Materials, ect, ect.  It's a minor hassle, probably going to cost you an attack every now and then.  But shouldn't be any slower out of the gate than any other weapon user really. 

As far as Combat goes, you've got 17 Dice with 9 DV and an AR/DR of 17, possibly 20.  Should be generating Edge from Attacking and getting attacked, and if you've got Wireless on you generate Edge with an Attack automatically.  2 Edge per turn should be a non-issue.

Secondary skills.  You've got three 7/7 Contacts.  The Legwork you can generate with a couple emails is incredible.  14 Dice Negotiations, up to 19 with Assistance, you generate 1 Edge with Vocal Control, get a reduced Edge cost from Thunderbird, and probably generate a second point of Edge from the Armante so without spending any Edge you can re-roll 3 of the Johnson's hits.  You're not a Face, but you're really good at a lot of Social tests.  Negotiation, Legwork, Infiltration, and Combat are all areas where this character could easily be spotlighted.

Yes, this build would be "better" with Stolen Gear, or spending a point of Essence on Used Muscle Toner 4.  Or both, really.  If you want to min/max this you'd drop Bad Debt for Stolen Gear, drop the Increased Agility for whatever else and pick up an unbonded Weapon Focus and a giant Qi Foci to go along with your Used Muscle Toner.  But overall this is a really solid performing character without Stolen Gear or Burn out.

Michael Chandra

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« Reply #1 on: <08-16-20/1304:42> »
7/7 contacts aren't Missions-legal. p15 of FAQ v1, Connection/Loyalty cannot exceed 6 in chargen.
How am I not part of the forum?? O_O I am both active and angry!

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #2 on: <08-16-20/1310:33> »
7/7 contacts aren't Missions-legal. p15 of FAQ v1, Connection/Loyalty cannot exceed 6 in chargen.

Suck it, elves!  You have to have more than 3 contacts now, oh no!
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Hobbes

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« Reply #3 on: <08-16-20/1342:17> »
Bah, had 7 in my head as the limit.  4 Rating 6 Contacts of assorted Loyalty then.  6/6, 6/6, 6/5, 6/1, something like that?  Less impressive legwork then. 

This also means Weapon Foci and Power Foci have a soft cap of Level 3.  If you don't purchase your Power Foci or Weapon Foci at Char gen anyway.  (and is just another reason for Stolen Gear...) 


Lormyr

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« Reply #4 on: <08-16-20/1419:50> »
This also means Weapon Foci and Power Foci have a soft cap of Level 3.  If you don't purchase your Power Foci or Weapon Foci at Char gen anyway.  (and is just another reason for Stolen Gear...)

Limited foci is for the best when considering overall balance. It also just now occurred to me that weapon foci probably won't stack with stuff like improved ability / reflex recorder / smartgun system / ect. given the FAQ ruling on what counts as an augmented skill, so probably not even necessary anymore.

That said, I do feel you though. One thing I dislike is how a face PC can no longer be of use in finding stuff for Missions, it is all purely contact related. And each contact can only search for a specific item one single time in the character's whole life? That is flatly stupid, considering the season takes place over the course of two years. Like there wouldn't be time for them to try again.

But hey, if they want to encourage us to build characters with 5 armorer/talismonger/whatever contacts to get that item that you can't start with due to availability and have zero versatility, I'll play that game. I just don't see any value of any kind in that pigeon hole.
« Last Edit: <08-16-20/1426:10> by Lormyr »
"TL:DR 6e's reduction of meaningful choices is akin to forcing everyone to wear training wheels. Now it's just becomes a bunch of toddlers riding around on tricycles they can't fall off of." - Adzling

Hobbes

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« Reply #5 on: <08-16-20/1650:50> »
My main complaint is the significant difference between Post Char Gen and Char Gen availability.  The time to get "The Good Stuff" is Char Gen.  Which encourages dumping a Priority for more Resources, or Stolen Gear, or high levels of In Debt. 

Missions has Rating 5 Contacts, so anything rating 5 on down, no worries.  But 6 (L) or (I) on up starts to get gamey to figure out if you can get it.

I don't like locking up gear options because it so disproportionately impacts mundanes.  And it makes for a weird advancement feeling, since getting that cool thing that you couldn't get as a newbie doesn't happen like it would in a home game. 

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #6 on: <08-16-20/1658:13> »
My main complaint is the significant difference between Post Char Gen and Char Gen availability.  The time to get "The Good Stuff" is Char Gen.  Which encourages dumping a Priority for more Resources, or Stolen Gear, or high levels of In Debt. 

Not to say you're wrong, because you're not.

But it's not a problem caused by the availability rules.  Given you only make X nuyen on average, you can expect to have 24x nuyen over the course of your character's career.  Of course with half of it coming after your career is already over halfway thru...

The time to get the "good stuff" will always be during Chargen.
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Lormyr

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« Reply #7 on: <08-16-20/1726:36> »
My main complaint is the significant difference between Post Char Gen and Char Gen availability.  The time to get "The Good Stuff" is Char Gen.  Which encourages dumping a Priority for more Resources, or Stolen Gear, or high levels of In Debt. 

Missions has Rating 5 Contacts, so anything rating 5 on down, no worries.  But 6 (L) or (I) on up starts to get gamey to figure out if you can get it.

I don't like locking up gear options because it so disproportionately impacts mundanes.  And it makes for a weird advancement feeling, since getting that cool thing that you couldn't get as a newbie doesn't happen like it would in a home game.

100% agree.
"TL:DR 6e's reduction of meaningful choices is akin to forcing everyone to wear training wheels. Now it's just becomes a bunch of toddlers riding around on tricycles they can't fall off of." - Adzling

markelphoenix

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« Reply #8 on: <08-16-20/1902:33> »
I feel like this thread points out an issue of SR that has been around for awhile with SR across editions. Advancement is crap for mundanes. All awakened/technos get to spend their Karma bumping up their main thing to do a lot of cool things OUTSIDE of chargen, where as mundanes get hit pretty hard with availability rules and artificial limitations to gear access for Missions and to a lesser degree in normal table play.
« Last Edit: <08-16-20/1904:06> by markelphoenix »

Shinobi Killfist

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« Reply #9 on: <08-17-20/1348:59> »
4e costed ware out in a way you could advance with it. 1e-3e sort of did as well but through making mission rewards much much higher. The problem was then your improvements quickly cost as much as permanent high lifestyles. You could afford it but the setting suffered the logical hookup.

Personally My ideal I’d go with 4e costs and remove essence for mundanes. Whatever the harshest magic loss for ware we’ve had over the editions. Use that.

Lormyr

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« Reply #10 on: <08-17-20/1359:15> »
4e costed ware out in a way you could advance with it. 1e-3e sort of did as well but through making mission rewards much much higher. The problem was then your improvements quickly cost as much as permanent high lifestyles. You could afford it but the setting suffered the logical hookup.

Personally My ideal I’d go with 4e costs and remove essence for mundanes. Whatever the harshest magic loss for ware we’ve had over the editions. Use that.

It could also be interesting if an overall Essence stat was irrelevant, but at certain thresh holds of loss you acquired de-humanizing traits, like resistance to mana based spells, difficulty healing magically, difficulty healing naturally, eventually no longer healing naturally and needing physically repaired, emotional detachment, ect.
"TL:DR 6e's reduction of meaningful choices is akin to forcing everyone to wear training wheels. Now it's just becomes a bunch of toddlers riding around on tricycles they can't fall off of." - Adzling

Shinobi Killfist

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« Reply #11 on: <08-17-20/1711:37> »
I dig that. Instead of a hard limit some back end penalties and perks to having a ton of ware.

for me I come from 1e on. Back in the earlier editions mundanes could cram a almost bottomless amount of ware into their bodies when combining bio and cyber. Then bioware cost essence. But the lesser of the 2 was halved. Then it cost full essence. Way back in those editions no one thought mages were underpowered. Maybe they didn’t get to act some fights due to the initiative system but they were still powerful. Mages have gone up and down I’m power over the editions. Mundanes just down.

I can’t see why we can’t go back to bottomless ware again. This constant need to make being a mundane difficult I don’t get.

As an aside to this I think all ware should be directly upgradable. You have muscle aug 1 getting 2 is just the difference in cost between 1 and 2. So you don’t feel like you have to max everything out out of the gate in order not to waste resources.